


The Last One Left

by Telynores



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-20 15:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19994860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telynores/pseuds/Telynores
Summary: One last survivor encounters another.





	The Last One Left

He liked to come back here sometimes, even though each time there was less and less to see. But no matter how much of the desert reclaimed what was left of Xerxes, he would still be able to find his way around the once familiar streets. Here, the market, nothing left but the flagstones, the stalls having rotted away long ago. Here, his master’s home, and here of course, the emperor’s palace, where he had stood in the center as the world ended.

The circle was no longer intact, he noticed. Must be his doing, so that no one else would have the secret to immortality. Probably just as well, though he knew he would have to deal with him eventually. The homunculus in the flask, who had destroyed everything. Though in a way, it was as much his fault for never seeing the creature for what it was. It had given him power, and he had been blinded to its nature. And now they were all dead.

He blinked, realizing that he had been caught in memory for quite some time, and the sun was starting to sink low in the sky, bathing the desert in orange, gilding the circle and the ruins and the blue box in the corner.

Wait…blue box?

It was certainly incongruous with its surrounding, looking slightly like an Amestrian public phone box. But here, in Xerxes? The thought was laughable.

The door on the box cracked open and a man stepped out. Well, perhaps fell would have been a more appropriate word, as he collapsed on the sand shortly after exiting the phone box.

Hohenheim forgot his curiosity for a moment and ran to the unconscious man. To his relief, the stranger was still breathing, but he was deathly pale. There was something else as well…

Hohenheim recoiled with a curse. The stranger in front of him was not human. Nor was he a homunculus, he realized upon further reflection, as he could not detect more than one soul. Definitely not a man, though, which left Hohenheim baffled.

He startled backwards as the stranger’s eyes shot open. “Where am I?” the man who was not a man asked.

“You’re in the ruins of Xerxes, in the desert between Amestris and Xing,” Hohenheim replied.

The man’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Not a planet I’ve been to before, I think.”

His words confirmed Hohenheim’s suspicions. For once, he chose to be blunt. “What are you?” he asked.

The stranger sat up and held out his hand. “I’m the Doctor,” he said. A shadow crossed his face briefly. “Though perhaps that name is not so appropriate anymore.”

Hohenheim shook the Doctor’s hand but fixed him with a fierce glare. “That’s not what I asked.”

The Doctor waved a hand. “Not important. I think you already know the answer to your question. Besides,” he continued, “you’re not exactly human yourself.”

Hohenheim pulled back. “How did you know that?”

“Your timelines are awfully stagnant,” the Doctor said. “Bit of a fixed point, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean by that?” Hohenheim asked.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” the Doctor said. “Nothing really matters now. No one left to maintain the timelines. Just me, and I’ve never been much into that sort of thing. So you go on living forever and being that fixed point, and I’ll do nothing to fix it. Not sure what I’ll do, but it won’t be that.”

Clearly the Doctor was no longer really talking to Hohenheim. His eyes had gone distant and maybe seemed a little mad. “Are you alright, Doctor?” Hohenheim said, suddenly concerned.

The Doctor laughed. “No, no really. They’re all dead, you see,” he added pensively and Hohenheim’s blood froze.

“Who’s all dead?” he asked carefully. Did this strange man know about what happened here? To his knowledge, no one knew except for himself and the Dwarf in the Flask.

But his fears to be unfounded. “The Time Lords,” the Doctor said. “They were pretentious and stupid, but they were my people and I killed them all.” He seemed to suddenly realize that Hohenheim was still there. “I’m sorry. It’s still a bit fresh. Shouldn’t be bothering strangers with my genocidal problems.”

“That’s alright, actually,” Hohenheim said. “I think I know how you feel.”

The Doctor fixed him with an alien glare. “Yes, I think you might.” He looked around. “This was Xerxes, wasn’t it? Sorry, I was a bit distracted, didn’t properly notice. So tell me, are you Hohenheim or the homunculus?”

Caught off guard, he responded without thinking, “Hohenheim. How do you know about Xerxes?”

The Doctor snorted. “The entire population of a city killed in one night? And then the homunculus that did it tried to swallow the world? Yeah, a lot of people started paying attention. And yes,” he continued at Hohenheim’s wide-eyed look, “I did just tell you the future. Like I said, no Time Lords left to maintain the time lines.”

For the first time in a long while, Hohenheim found himself lost for words. The Doctor was clearly mad, and yet… He knew things that no one could know. Could his vision of a future when the homunculus was defeated come to pass?

He’d taken too long to speak. The Doctor turned back to his blue box. “Should be going, I suppose. Nothing further to do here.”

“Doctor, wait.”

He turned and regarded Hohenheim quizzically. “Thank you,” Hohenheim said. “It helps to know that someone understands.”

The Doctor quirked a small grin. “Best of luck to you, Hohenheim of Xerxes,” he said, before shutting the door.

“You too, Doctor,” Hohenheim replied to the now empty ruins.


End file.
